Stefan Elmgren

Stefan Elmgren — born in Sweden in 1974 — was the guitarist of HammerFall's classic line-up, a member between 1997 and 2008. His time covers exactly the period in which the band established its position: Glory to the Brave (1997), Legacy of Kings (1998), Renegade (2000), Crimson Thunder (2002) and Chapter V (2005) — the run that returned traditional heavy metal to the European circuit at a moment when the genre was given up for finished. He shared the guitars with Oscar Dronjak in a clearly complementary relationship: Dronjak writes and holds the riffs, Elmgren plays the solos and melodic lines. He supplies the element of virtuosity the band uses sparingly, always subordinate to the chorus. He left in April 2008 for a reason unusual in that world: he decided to become a full-time commercial airline pilot, an interest he had been cultivating for years. He was replaced by Pontus Norgren. He returned briefly in 2014 to cover tours in Latin America and Europe, when one of the members was on paternity leave.